Labornet Japan is a network of citizens, unionists, activists, scholars and others from all walks of life to share information especially about rights and struggles in and outside of Japan. Established in 2001, the group now has more than 500 members, and the membership is growing. The English site introduces some reports shared on Labornet Japan website and other sources outside of Japan.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

In the early morning of July 8, 2013, many
citizens came to the building in which Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA)
is located in the Roppongi district in central Tokyo in protest against the
applications for the restart of nuclear power plants, which were filed by four
electric power companies. The demonstrators who came to this place to protest
showed what is wrong with the applications. A woman from Hokkaido complained, “The
Tomari Nuclear Power Plant has not been protected by a seawall at all. It is
scheduled to be built in 2015, but the operator of the plant wants to resume
its operation this December. This is stupid. It is said that there is a big
active fault near Reactor 1 of the plant. No safety measures have been taken at
all for the plant. The NRA should reject the application”. Demonstrators who
are involved in campaigns against possible restart of other nuclear power
plants, such as Oi, Takahama (both near the Kansai area), Ikata (on the Shikoku
Island) and Sendai (on the Kyushu Island), disclosed lies and deceits of the
plant operators one after another. A woman from Fukushima said in a bitter
voice, “The disaster of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant has never been
contained at all. Radioactivity still leaks. Remember Fukushima”. The protest
continued for approximately two hours. (M)

We summarized examples of “Firings, buyouts
and constructive dismissals” in emails sent to the Labor Consultation Center,
an NPO, and the National Union of General Workers Tokyo Tobu in May 2013. The
current administration of the Liberal Democratic Party attempts to make it
easier to fire workers by introducing the “limited regular employee” system. As
all of the examples show, inhuman and unfair dismissals are rampant even now. The
attempt of the LDP has to be stopped. One of the examples is a construction
company. When one of its employees asked the president, “Is the commutation fee
paid?”, he got mad and told the employee, “Do you quit or want to be fired?”
Another case was a worker who was asked to leave the company voluntarily or
quit after a quarrel. When the worker requested the management to issue a
document that mentions grounds for dismissal, the request was rejected. (Labor
Consultation Center)

On July 6, 2013, a meeting to “question
decontamination and its work” was held in central Tokyo, hosted by the “Network for Exposed Workers”. Despite the violent
summer heat, many came to participate in the rally. IIDA Katsuyasu, the MC and
a member of the Tokyo Occupational Health and Safety Center, said, “The
disaster of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has been far from
contained even after two years. It is necessary for us to question
decontamination and its work themselves”. HIRANO Toshio, an organizer of the
meeting, doctor and member of the TOHSC, visits temporary housing in Iwaki
City, Fukushima Prefecture once a month for providing health counseling. In
June, a woman came to the counseling for fear of cancer. Mr. Hirano saw a man
in his 50s die of thyroid cancer a year ago. (Y)